Roadkill: Episode 4

 "I will set my country free..."

Argh. You know how things are, essentially, good, bad or indifferent, and in reviewing something (not that I’d necessarily describe this blog as a “review” but me just pontificating however I want), one is essentially placing what one is reviewing along that scale, and why? Well, this episode- and by extension the series- is rather difficult to put on that scale. To show why, I’m going to discuss the episode twice- as a taut political thriller and as a state of the nation political drama from David Hare.

As a thriller, with Peter Laurence as an antihero who schemes his way to the top while still being recognisably human, this is bloody good. It’s admirable how nearly the places click into place in this final episode. The whole thing is extremely well structured, with no loose ends and some nice character stuff- the meeting between Peter and Rose is nicely heartwarming, and I like how they subvert expectations by connecting- although the comparison between the politician and the fraudster is clear. It's House of Cards for the '20s.

Unfortunately, as this is a play by David Hare, I think we're supposed to see some kind of depth of commentary on the state of the nation, wth Peter Lawrence being a thinly veiled Boris Johnson. But there's no attempt here to understand the Tory mind. While I'm sure many Tories are indeed cynical bastards, that's a fairly shallow point to make. Yes, Peter is allowed to have genuine libertarian principles, but this is essentialy taking House of Cards and expecting us to take it, not just as a bit of Machiavellian fun, but as a serious examination of modern Toryism. There's no sense whatsoever that Hare has made any attempt to look at how Tories see themselves. One doesn't have to be a Tory, or right wing (I'm neither: I'm a Whig) to understand that some people, whether I agree or not, may see value in a Burkean clinging to tried and tested institutions and caution about change lest we risk the chaos of change, or indeed in a more fundamentalist view of the free market, incompatible though these ideas surely seem. It would hard to extend this approach to the shallow and destructive Leninism of a Dominic Cummings, which would be fascinating, but most Tories would agree with me there.

I'll be generous, and treat Roadkill as a modern House of Cards. In those terms, it's rather good although not as good as the original. But it's no more than that.

Roadkill: Episode 3

 "I love your turbulence. It makes people think."

I may, while admiring the craftsmanship of the script, have been a little on the lukewarm side about last episode. Fortunately, and pleasantly, this third episode was full of incident, drama, wit, subtle characterisation and, yes, relataile characters.

We begin with two contrasts. Charmian is, indeed, dead. But we move swiftly to scenes of Peter smoothly speechifying as he leaves hospital. It's then sraight home where an outraged Lily has called a family conference- including environmental activist and Peter's other daughter Susan- to discuss his infidelity. It's a fascinatingly subtle series of scenes. Susan is closer to Peter, yet her politics are so different. And Peter's wife Helen throws him out of the house not for his infidelity but for the damage to her dignity of it becoming known, and her becoming an object of pity. These scenes feel very real.

Then Peter returns to Madeleine (still a surprisingly small role for Sidse Babett Knudsen), and a parallel reckoning as she lets out her own rage at being the other woman, used, never allowed into his life. Peter's personal life has collapsed, and all because of his past action- even before another consequence materialises as his secret daughter Rose, in prison, wants to make contact.

But Peter's secrets are being uncovered, as the barrister slowly pieces things together, ending with possession of the tape containing Charmian's last interview from before she died. The walls are seemingly closing in for Peter. Yet there also seem to be walls closing around the prime minister, and we all know that Peter is in the frame.

The concluding episode looks as though it will certainly ne exciting, but this episode was good fun, full of great dialogue and pithy observations, such as that the UK pretty much only does arms manufacturing, pharma and financial services. This still isn't Edge of Darkness, but it's good telly.

Roadkill: Episode 2

 "You think you're too popular to be sacked."

It's odd. There's a lot going on here, the plot is nice and intricate- very  State of Play, still- and there's some nice social commentary, if a bit broad brush, particularly into the Tory psyche. The cast is excellent. But something isn't quite clicking with me, and I'm unsure what.So much happens. Arch-privatiser Peter shows us the other side of his libertarianism with his very sensible thoughts on prison reform (and, privately, drug law reform), but the PM slaps him down. Sensible, humane criminal justice policy may be de rigueur in the rest of Europe but for some reason it's not how Tories, or perhaps even the British as a whole, roll.

We move on to a facinating scene in which Margaret hands some documents to Peter's former barrister- an alternative way of the truth coming out if, as seems possible, Charmian is either dead or incapacitated after being hit by a van following a very interesting and revealing evening in Washington DC. This nicely parallel's Peter's crash at the end when Duncan tells him (having done a swtcheroo of DNA, interestingly) that the myserious young woman in pison is indeed his daughter. Meanwhile, Peter's acknowledged daughter manages to uncover the fact he has a girlfriend and is delightfully pragmatic about the way she handles it.

And there are lots of other little revelations and, indeed, character moments. On the surface it all seems very good, and Hugh Laurie in particular is superb. And yet I'm not sure I feel invested in any of the characters. It's a clever script, but seems more about ideas than people. I'm not sure that should necessarily matter enormously in a political drama, but this seems to be structured, with dramatic beats, as though it should.

Let's see how this goes.

Roadkill: Episode 1

 "Voters think of me as a character..."

So, alternating with the crown, I'll be blogging this very current political thriller from David Hare, starring Hugh Laurie as exactly the sort of morally dodgy character he's been playing of late. First impressions are extremely promising: an intricate yet clear plot that reminds me of State of Play while being very much of our time.

We first meet ambitious Tory transport minister Peter Laurence immediately after he's won a libel case and makes a speech on the steps which has to have been intended to echo Jonathan Aitken, bavk in the Major years back in that innocent era when Toty misisters would actually resign for misdeeds and the concept of absolute truth was rather more fashionable than it is now. But, well, he's essentially Boris Johnson, isn't he? A shagger, a "character", a man with no pirnciples.... although, it seems, Peter is at once more criminal and much more competent than Boris.

It says a lot for Hare's script that there are lots of characters and many moving parts here, but things are never hard to follow. The cast is superb. The hero is clearly Sarah Greene's investigative journalist Charmian,humanised as a recovering alcoholic, but also impressive are Helen McRory as a delightfully machiavellian prime minister and Pip Torrens as a cynical newspaper editor. The direction is excellent yet unobtrusive, and it's nice to see a variety of locations from a prison to a club where young people dance to The Fall's "Totally Wired". Where were these places when I was their age?

A very promising start. Early days, but this could prove to be something special.